The nationally-syndicated
Washington Post columnist peeked into Calvin's Fine Arts Center
auditorium moments before he was to give a speech. It was January 1994,
and Grand Rapids was in the throes of a snowstorm. Still, the 1,000-seat
room was filled to overflowing.

That's because this
wasn't just any lecture. This one was part of Calvin's award-winning January
Series, put together by the quintessential hostess June Hamersma.

Each year, Hamersma
somehow persuades 15 of the hottest, most up-to-the-minute speakers
and performers to travel to a mid-sized town in Michigan in the middle
of winter. Past headliners include former Surgeon General C. Everett Koop,
Palestinian Liberation Organization spokesperson Hanan Ashrawi, and Garrison
Keillor, host of public radio's A Prairie Home Companion.

The best part: free
admission.

"I once was
told it's like getting a free liberal arts education," Hamersma said,
thanks in part to underwriting from local businesses. Even if the speakers'
names aren't always familiar, you can be sure they're the top expert in
their field - and the topics are always cutting-edge.

Last year's Series,
for example, included lectures on genetic engineering from Francis S.
Collins, head of the National Human Genome Research Institute; on Iraq
by Scott Ritter, former chief weapons inspector for the United Nations
Special Commission in Iraq; and on the future of organized religion by
Gustav Niebuhr, national religion correspondent for the New York Times.

The lineup recently
won Hamersma her third award in four years from the International Platform
Association for "Best Campus Lecture Series." The contest included
top schools such as Duke University and the University of Nebraska.

"We're able
to get people to speak for peanuts because they want to be a part of the
Series," Hamersma said. "They don't often get to speak to such
a large and interested audience."

The crowds are testament
to Hamersma's work ethic and her vision for the Series, an event that
hasn't always had such drawing power.

In 1967, a student-faculty
committee organized the first of what was then rather blandly called the
"Interim Mid-day Lecture Series." The College started the series
to complement the new month-long interim between semesters, when students
took specially designed courses and were able to pursue interests outside
of their majors.

At first, the series
attracted some notable speakers and a decent turnout from the Calvin community.
But promotion eventually fizzled and attendance dwindled.

Former Provost Gordon
Van Harn wanted to revive the series in 1987, and thought June Hamersma
might be just the shot in the arm it needed.

"June had a
good reputation at the College," Van Harn said. "She had organized
and run a successful concert series, she knew her way around the community,
she knew the media, and she had a lot of energy."

To say the least.

Hamersma's daily
routine - locally legendary, thanks to media reports - starts at 4:30
a.m. While she power-walks several miles on a treadmill at the local health
club, the petite powerhouse reads several newspapers. Sunrise breakfast
meetings are routine. In her office, she reads dozens of magazines and
works the phones. Everyone she meets is a potential Rolodex card in her
vast network of contacts.

Through sheer persistence
and unflagging charm, Hamersma has nurtured the lecture series from its
small beginnings into what the Grand Rapids Press called "Calvin's
January Sunshine" and the "Talk of the Town." The average
daily attendance has grown from a sparse 50 or so last decade to 1,400.
Garrison Keillor's appearance with poet Roland Flint drew around 6,000
- people were spilling out of the fieldhouse, Calvin's largest indoor
venue. The lectures are such must-see events that people covet seats in
overflow rooms, where they watch via closed-circuit television.

"June has brought
the community to the college in ways that had never been done before,"
Van Harn said. "Calvin is now recognized as a cultural force in the
community."

Many of the speakers
end up on the January Series schedule because they were suggested by Hamersma's
Calvin colleagues. One slot always is reserved for a distinguished alumnus
- for the 2000 Series, it's philosopher Alvin Plantinga. But some come
simply because Hamersma wanted them - badly.

Hamersma said her
biggest coup so far was landing Keillor.

"I kept writing
to him all the time," she said. "I knew I couldn't afford him
through his agent, but I also knew the money wasn't important to him."

Finally, after several
refusals, he agreed to come. "He said he kept turning me down because
he didn't have anything to say!" Hamersma remembered. But when he
designed a program of poetry reading with poet and school chum Roland
Flint, he found his voice.

"His acceptance
just happened," June said. "There was nothing special that I
did."

Hamersma has perhaps
outdone herself this year by snagging Col. Eileen Collins, the first female
space shuttle commander. Collins, who has received more than 1,000 speaking
invitations, agreed to visit Calvin after U.S. Rep.Vern Ehlers, an alumnus
and a former Calvin physics professor, pitched the Series to her at a
House Science Committee astronaut reception.

Friendships with
local, national and even global powerbrokers have long been a byproduct
of Hamersma's career. After graduating from Calvin in 1951 with degrees
in history and philosophy, she married John Hamersma, now a Calvin music
professor.

June Hamersma worked
as station manager for a Grand Rapids radio station before John's postgraduate
schooling took them to New York City, where she became director of publicity
and public relations for The Riverside Church. There, she helped plan
the funeral of philanthropist John D. Rockefeller Jr., a Riverside member.

Back in Grand Rapids
a few years later, Hamersma chose to stay at home with her two children,
but she kept a high profile in the community. She has served on at least
a dozen boards of local nonprofits, including Butterworth Hospital and
Hospice of Western Michigan. She worked as concert manager for Calvin's
music department for a while, and occasionally helped to plan other special
events on campus before Van Harn chose her to transform the Series into
a public relations boon.

The publicity hasn't
all been good, though. While Hamersma's speaker selection often opens
up thoughtful city-wide dialogue, one of her 1995 bookings drew enormous
community criticism.

Hamersma booked libertarian
policy analyst Charles Murray to talk about welfare reform. Then, many
months before the Series, Murray told Hamersma he had a new book coming
out that linked intelligence with access to technology and therefore with
social class. Some interpreted the book as racist.

"I already knew
about the book and thought the topic would have real merit," Hamersma
said. "I talked to (then-Calvin President) Tony Diekema, and warned
him that we would take it on the chin. I was willing to do it, but I needed
him to back me up."

She had Diekema and
professors from all over the political spectrum read the book, The
Bell Curve. "Everyone said it was something we needed
to hear," Hamersma recalled.

In December, the
Press reported on Murray's upcoming appearance. The backlash was
intense - Hamersma received nasty phone calls, and several people threatened
to withdraw gifts to the college. A few picketers stationed themselves
outside the Fine Arts Center.

Rather than cancel
the lecture, Hamersma arranged a seminar before the speech that gave some
objectors a chance to talk with Murray. The result was a learning experience
that addressed such issues as measuring intelligence, education and racism.

"This is not
to say that I agree with Murray's perspective," she said, "but
it was important to hear it."

"We've
been an enormous witness in the community," Hamersma asserted. "We've
said to the community that we're willing to listen."

But as much as Hamersma
likes the attention the Series has brought to Calvin, she's most proud
that more students than ever are attending the lectures.

She gets them hooked
early - even before they're in college. Students at Grand Rapids Christian
High School can opt out of some semester exams if they write reviews of
Series speakers. Crestwood Middle School in suburban Kentwood sends about
a hundred students to a number of lectures each year.

Hamersma's
biggest goal is to get every Calvin student to attend the Series, which
exemplifies Calvin's mission.

"We
teach students to think with a Christian mind," Hamersma explained.
"Many current subjects are not thought of from a Christian perspective.
This allows for civil discourse at its best."